For those who remember, our last look at a motherboard from ASUS was the super feature-packed P5WD2 Premium WiFi-TV Edition from their new AI Life line-up (which you can access here
). ASUS practically slapped on every possible function for home entertainment and networking that the board left nothing much else to be desired. However, if you had felt that the P5WD2 Premium's pricing was just a tad too exorbitant, we revisit ASUS' AI Life to look at another product that is just as feature-rich, but slightly more accessible to the masses. The board we are referring to is the ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe, which is based on the mainstream Intel 945P Express chipset. Similar to the P5WD2 Premium, the P5LD2 Deluxe comes in a simply designed white AI Life packaging, but its hefty weight will be an indicator of the huge accessory package that accompanies it. The board also comes in standard and WiFi-TV editions just like the P5WD2 Premium.

The ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard.

Bundled items are listed below:-

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard bundle

5 x SATA data cables

2 x SATA power converter cables (dual plugs)

1 x SATA power converter cables (single plug)

2 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cables

1 x 40-conductor IDE data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

SLI high-speed digital link interface bridge

IEEE 1394a port bracket

USB 2.0 (2 ports) and Game port bracket

COM port bracket

I/O shield

Driver CD

InterVideo WinDVD Platinum Suite

User's manual

WiFi-TV optional bundle

ASUS WiFi-TV PCI card

IR Remote controller

USB IR receiver

AV cable

PAL/SECAM to NTSC RF adapter

FM antenna

Omni-directional dual-band Wireless LAN antenna

Support CD (CyberLink PowerCinema, PowerDirector and drivers)

User's guide

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe Technical Specifications.

CPU Support

Supports
90nm LGA775
processor package

Supports Intel Pentium
D / Pentium
Processor Extreme Edition

Supports Intel Pentium
4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition

Intel Hyper-Threading
Technology ready

Chipset

Northbridge: Intel
945P Express

533 / 800 /
1066MHz front side bus

PCI Express x16
graphics

Southbridge: Intel
ICH7R

Intel High
Definition Audio

Supports six PCI
Express x1 lanes

Supports up to
eight USB 2.0 ports

Supports four SATA
II ports (with RAID 0 and 1
capabilities)

Single-channel
Ultra ATA-100 IDE port

Memory

Supports four
unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM

Supports 677/533/400
dual channel DDR2 memory
architecture

Storage

Intel ICH7R Southbridge

1 x Ultra ATA
33/66/100 (data transfer rate up to
100MB/sec.)

4 x SATA II
(Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface)

Intel Matrix Storage Technology

Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5

Silicon Image Sil3132 SATAIIRAID controller

2 x SATA II (Serial
ATAII 3.0Gbps interface)

Supports RAID 0,
RAID 1

ITE8211F IDE controller

2 x Ultra ATA
33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to
133MB/sec.)

Audio

Intel High Definition
Audio (Azalia)

Realtek ALC882M HD
Audio CODEC

Dolby Master Studio certified

Networking

Marvell 88E8053 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
controller

IEEE 1394 (FireWire)

Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A IEEE 1394a host
controller

2 x 1394a ports @ 400
Mbps speed

I/O Interface

1 x Floppy connector

3 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors

6 x SATA connectors (1 x eSATA)

8 x USB 2.0 ports (4 x rear, 2 x bracket, 2
x header)

2 x IEEE 1394a ports (1 x rear, 1 x bracket)

1 x RJ45 LAN port

1 x Optical S/PDIF Output

1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output

8-Channel Audio I/O ports

1 x CD-IN

1 x 9-pin serial port

1 x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)

1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port

1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port

Expansion Slots

2 x PCIe x16 slots,
PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a
compliant

1 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI
Express Bus specification v1.0a
compliant

3 x 32-bit PCI slots,
PCI 2.3 compliant

Special Features

WiFi-TV PCI card (WiFi-TV Edition only)

Digital TV (DVB-T), Analog TV, FM

Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g

ASUS Stack Cool 2

ASUS Hyper Path 3

PCB

ATX Form Factor, 12"x
9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

Complete rear panel of the P5LD2 Deluxe only lacks a standard COM port, which is provided by ASUS as a bracket.